“Yesterday’s” Comic> The Strangers #8

“Or at least it will feel that way with this new sneakers!”

The Strangers #8

Malibu Comics/Ultraverse (January, 1994)

“Taken By The Sky!”

WRITER: Steve Englehart

PENCILERS: Rick Hoberg & Steve Skroce

INKER: Tim Eldred

COLORING: Rick Schmitz & Psychodelic Prisms

LETTERER: Dave Lamphear

EDITOR: Roland Mann

The Strangers return to Earth, and Aladdin takes the opportunity to demand answers and even take them into custody. However, they landed on a base where The Night Man just rescued everybody during the moon event, and so the ranking Captain comes to their aid. The good news ends there as Yral’s chief, convinced the mission is over, tells her that she must return to the island even though she would rather stay with the Strangers. While she and the Strangers fight back, the chief even turning into a skeleton during the magic battle, Yral eventually agrees to go with him. The Strangers return to the island and attempt to get her back, but while she considers going, the mysterious secret forcing the island to remain separate from the ground leads to her staying. Nobody will tell our heroes what this is all about, but coordinates snuck to Lady Killer by Yral may allow them to find out for themselves.

What they got right: It’s nice to see that the team has really come together enough that Yral even considers herself part of the team now, and her growing friendship with Zip Zap. We learn Lady Killer’s abilities include knowing where to go even through portals. If she’s been there once, she’s better than a GPS. We’ll also get some answers about Sky City.

What they got wrong: In a move out of more current day writing, the story stops so Spectral can have a talk with the base commander about him being gay. There was no reason to tell him other than for the story to have the captain tell him there’s nothing wrong about it.

What I think overall: This could get interesting or fall apart. I’m looking forward to see where this goes. Unfortunately it’s getting harder to do this series as the site I’ve been using seems to be out of service, the other two sites are missing comics or not easy to use, and I don’t know what other options exist as I’d like to NOT get a computer virus thank you very much. We’ll see how this all goes.